Cancer-Focused Research:

Professor Szleifer's group works on the development and application of theoretical methodologies to study the interactions between cells and biomaterials. For example, his group aims at understanding the types of surface modifiers that will optimize drug delivery to cancer cells. His lab also works on understanding what are the biological implication of changes in the cell nanostructure as found in early cancer. This work, done in collaboration with Professor Vadim Backman's group, is aimed at understanding how hanging in the crowding environment of the cell nucleus affect chromatin compaction and transcription processes.